Chapter 11
“Why are you walking like my granny?” Sally asked right before she embraced Caleb in a big hug.
Caleb laughed into her strawberry blonde. “Why are you still the meanest Brit I know?”
“That can’t be right. We are all bitches.”
Caleb snorted. He missed Sally. With a grunt, he dropped the enormous netted bag of footballs on the ground. “I’m still sleeping on the couch. It’s killing my back, Sal. Hurts like a motherfucker. I feel as old as your granny.”
Her eyebrows tugged together in confusion. “Why are you still sleeping on the sofa?” Her jaw dropped. “You mean you two haven’t slept together yet? No sex at all?”
“Shush.” Caleb’s eyes flicked to Jamie, who, blessedly, was too distracted with Ellie to hear. “Shut up, okay? We are taking it slow.”
“Why?” Sally looked horrified. “Did the doctor say he couldn’t—?”
“No, Sal, he’s allowed to. We just haven’t.”
“Why?” She looked genuinely confused. “You guys are crazy about each other. You’re telling me you haven’t fucked?”
“No, we haven’t,” Caleb snapped, a little too harshly. “He’s coming off an enormous injury and doesn’t even remember—” He paused and took a deep breath. “The last thing I want is for him to feel obligated to sleep with me.”
“Whatever,” Sally said, slipping her Chelsea hoodie over her head. “Valentine’s Day is coming up, so…”
“So what?” Caleb blinked. “Do you think I should… like, do something?”
“Um, yes. Great opportunity to bone down.”
“Sally!”
“I mean, do something romantic for the man you love? Sorry, it’s been a while for me.” Her freckled cheeks turned a bit pink. “I think I forget what romance is.”
“Aw, Sal.” Caleb squeezed her shoulder. “Any girl would be lucky to be your Valentine’s date.”
A smile spread on her freckled face, and she reached above her head to stretch. “Oh, don’t worry. I know.” She wiggled her hips from side to side. “Definitely do something with Jamie, though. That would be right strange if you didn’t.”
The small talk ended quickly, because, within moments, the field was flooded with chaos.
Captain-led practice was basically a joke. Dillion allowed the ladies to bring their kids, since so many of them were mothers, and the team did drills while Caleb and the other trainers basically goofed off with the children. Partners were invited, too.
It was the best.
“Caleb!” A little girl came running over with her arms outstretched. She had on a Chelsea sweatshirt that was about three times too big.
“Freya, how are you?” Caleb caught the girl in his arms and laughed as she threw her arms around his shoulders. “Where is your mom?” He looked around for Angie.
“I don’t know!” she exclaimed proudly.
“You are getting so big. How old are you now?” He pretended to think really hard. “Four, right? You look about four…”
“I’m five! I just turned five!”
His eyes went wide. “No way. That can’t be right. Five is so big.”
“I am!” She kicked her legs, and he put her down. As soon as her little feet hit the ground, she put her hands on her hips in an exact impersonation of Angie. “I am five, and I can prove it.”
“How’s that?”
“Mummy! Tell Caleb that I’m five!” She rushed over to the group of players chatting near the pile of balls.
Angie looked up at Caleb and mouthed, I’m so sorry.
He waved her off. Freya was delightful and, for whatever reason, adored Caleb.
And now he’d get paid to basically kick the football around with her for the afternoon.
From the corner of his eye, he could see Jamie staring at him from where he sat next to Ellie, watching the commotion.
They were seated on the fold-out chairs Caleb used when the benches were full.
Jamie’s wool hat was pulled over his ears.
He looked adorably snug. A few of his brown curls had escaped and were coiled around his face.
Caleb wondered if he was warm enough. He’d brought an extra coat, just in case.
Ellie had come for emotional support, and even though he always felt a small amount of jealousy seeing Jamie with his ex, he was glad she was here to help Jamie navigate the complexities of seeing people again.
Plus, she was the biggest Chelsea fan on the planet and was always thrilled to be invited.
Sally came up behind Caleb, placing a gentle hand on his back. “He’s okay, Caleb.”
“I know. I’m just…worried.”
“Why? He’s doing great. Except he looks freezing.”
“I don’t want him to feel overwhelmed. He…” Caleb’s shoulders fell. “He doesn’t remember you guys, Sal.”
She squeezed his shoulder. “We know. Trust me, we all talked about it. It’ll be fine.”
Caleb nodded. The team had promised not to bombard Jamie with questions, and Caleb watched as they each approached him, one by one.
Angie went first. “Hey, Jamie. I’m Angie. I’m really happy to hear you are recovering.”
“Hey, J!” Dillion jogged over and kissed him on the cheek. His eyes went wide. “You look good.”
“Hey Jamie!”
“So glad to have you here, Jamie.”
“Let us know if you need anything!”
God, Caleb loved these women.
Jamie smiled politely, but when his eyes locked on Sally, his face fell. She froze as he said, “You… I think I… did we play Scrabble?”
Sally’s face lit up. “Yes! We did! I come to all your Game Nights.”
With a shy smile, Jamie held out his hand to shake hers. “Brilliant. It’s nice to see you again.” He looked proud of himself.
“It’s Sally,” she said confidently, shaking his hand. “If you forgot. Which would be understandable.”
Caleb tried to ignore the small pang of jealousy he felt that Jamie remembered a small detail about Sally.
Before he could dwell on it too long, he heard Freya barreling toward him, now with about six other kids behind her.
“Come on!” she yelled, leading them valiantly.
He recognized most of them. Willow, Liv’s daughter.
Peter, he forgot who he belonged to. Poppy and Ruby, Sweeney’s twins.
Caleb’s heart sank when he spotted Coach Halcombe’s son, Nate. He liked the kid but couldn’t stand his father. If Nate was here, Halcombe was lurking around somewhere.
Facing the horde of children, Caleb clapped his hands together and exclaimed, “Alright, kiddos, who wants to play keep away while your moms do drills?”
Ellie’s attention was locked on the Chelsea women’s practice, but Jamie couldn’t pry his eyes away from Caleb. The man had been playing with a group of rowdy kids, skillfully maneuvering the ball away from them, sometimes pretending to lose the ball with an exaggerated, “Darn it!”
It was sweet to watch. He was really good with them, and he genuinely seemed to be enjoying himself. It made Jamie’s heart feel all gooey.
Had they ever discussed having children? Probably. Surely, if they were engaged, Jamie would’ve insisted they were on the same page about it.
Jamie’s heart sank. Just one more important conversation he didn’t remember having…
After a very impressive ‘save’ during keepaway, Caleb was currently at the bottom of a jumble of children trying to pry the ball from his hands. “I saved it fair and square!” Caleb exclaimed as he held the ball over his head.
The oldest, Nate, was yelling, “But you’re taller than us, it’s not fair!”
“Not my fault you’re super short.”
Caleb pretended to fumble the ball between his hands, punctuating it with a few “whoa, whoa, whoa!”s, before dropping it in front of Freya, who ran away yelling, “Breakaway!” The rest of the children followed.
Caleb stood and stretched his back, cheeks flushed and eyes twinkling with amusement. His Nike jacket was very wrinkled.
The moment he caught Jamie’s eye, he jogged over.
“Are you cold? I brought an extra jacket.”
“I’m alright.”
“Hope you’re not too bored.”
Jamie shook his head. “Not at all. This is surreal.” He glanced around Stamford Bridge Arena. “Just to be here is crazy.”
“Yeah, you’ve always been starry-eyed about coming to these things with me.
” A dimple in Caleb’s cheek formed, and something in Jamie’s chest loosened.
It was nice to see him so relaxed. “I love this stadium. Plus, it’s nice not having to go out to Kingsmeadow as much anymore.
It was so far.” He plunked himself down on the grass, facing Jamie.
“I originally got my car because going from the different stadiums was becoming annoying. But since the team has performed so well the last few seasons, the league has us playing here.” He reached his arms out wide and fell onto his back.
“It’s amazing. I can’t believe you get to come here for work,” Jamie said, looking down at him.
“I know, right?” Caleb’s smile was pure sunshine as he looked around.
“It’s fucking unreal sometimes. I’d love to tell everyone back in Ohio, like, look at me now.
You know?” He propped himself up on his elbows.
“But, hey, look where you get to work every day. I mean, people come from all over the world to go to The British Library.”
Jamie felt his cheeks warm. “I know. I’m so lucky.”
An elbow nudged the side of Jamie’s shin. “Luck has nothing to do with it, and you know it.” The little bit of contact between them made Jamie’s heart do a little, embarrassing wiggle.
“I’m being summoned,” Caleb sighed. Jamie looked up, and two little boys were rushing over and yelling. Caleb got to his feet and asked, “You guys good here, though? Need anything?”
“Yeah, don’t worry about us. We are fine.
Right, El?” Ellie didn’t even look at Jamie as she waved her hand and said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” A blue Chelsea beanie covered her jet-black hair, and her eyes were locked on the women doing drills.
“Jones should really work on her first touch today instead of fiddling around. Don’t you lot play the Wolves next week? ”
Caleb gave Jamie an amused smile and shook his head. “Yes, Ellie, we do.”
“Then she should be focusing. Her game’s been all over the place lately, and she’s hesitating on the ball.”
“Cool. Why don’t you go over and tell her that?”
“Maybe I will.”
“Better yet, Coach Halcombe just got here. Why don’t you go tell him?”